Traveling by air is generally very safe. But this could be the airline industry's best kept dangerous secret. It's called aerotoxic syndrome and it comes from "bleed air" into the cabins and cockpits that contain toxins.

Bleed air is air that is forced into an airplane for breathing via engine turbine compression sections. The air is cooled and forced into the aircraft interior from inside the engine cowling or cover. Most cabin air is 60% bleed air and 40% recycled air. Pilots are subject to 100% bleed air, so they get hit the hardest from bleed air contaminants.

All jet liners and turboprop planes use the bleed air technique for cabin air with the exception of the new Boeing Dream Liner. Airlines refuse to acknowledge victims of aerotoxic syndrome. That would be catastrophic for their business.

But it's a little more than coincidence that the Dream Liner was developed in the wake of more and more aerotoxic syndrome reports and exposure from airline pilots.

The Mechanics of Cabin Contamination

The contaminants are in turbine engine and hydraulic oils that occasionally leak and burn off vapors into the bleed air. Some of those oils contain large amounts of an organophosphate called tricresyl phosphate (TCP). Organophosphates are nerve gas agents used in insecticides and pesticides, and some nations have banned them.

A group of Swiss/German TV investigative journalists swabbed interior cabin samples from 31 different commercial aircraft and handed them over to Professor Christian van Netten, a leading toxicologist at the University of British Columbia. Professor van Netten found 28 of those cabins swabbed contained TCP.

The Health Effects of TCP

The long term effects of TCP are mostly neurological, but sometimes pulmonary. These effects create various symptoms identical to MS (multiple sclerosis) or Guillain-Barre, a paralysis that sometimes occurs after vaccinations. The symptoms vary in intensity.

Bleed air incidents from the 1960s were rarely connected to neurological damage from cabin air contamination. The airline industry has covered them up since the connections were first made in 1977.

But now the veil of censorship has been penetrated by some key victim activists who have done the research and provided proof to use in lawsuits against airlines and aircraft manufacturers.

Victims involved with the lawsuits have been mostly airline crews and flight attendants whose repeated exposure to bleed air contaminants made them most vulnerable to aerotoxic syndrome.

They are not disgruntled employees just looking to get something out of their employers. Many pilots and flight attendants who had previously loved their jobs have been forced into medical retirement with debilitating health issues as the result of bleed air.

The UK Independent reported that 27 pilots suffering from cognitive dysfunction were tested at University College London in 2006, and high amounts of jet-engine oil chemicals including TCP were discovered in their blood and fat.

Passengers Rarely Realize the Source Of Their Ailments

Flight crews and attendants have been aware of this toxic situation without speaking out for some time. But almost all passengers are clueless regarding these dangerous toxins. Cabin air filters are useless for protecting against heated oil TCP contaminants.

Some passengers were aware of a noxious odor and then dizziness, which turned into long term neurological problems with debilitating MS symptoms. These symptoms often kick in strongly days or even weeks after the toxic flight.

And since passengers know virtually nothing of aerotoxic syndrome, they don't connect what's wrong with them with the flight that released TCP fumes.

Breaking the Silence

Some very courageous and talented crew and flight attendants, who have been forced to retire because of long term debilitating neurological and lung disorders, broke the ice a few years ago with their lawsuits.

They've organized two international groups and have created the Aerotoxic Association and GCAQE (Global Cabin Air Quality Executive) websites, which are accessible via the links below.

Former British Airways pilot Captain Tristan Loraine, an aerotoxic syndrome victim himself, produced a documentary called Welcome Aboard Toxic Airlines, which has been distributed to various UK government officials.

If you've experienced dizziness, flu like symptoms, vision problems, or unusually long lasting fatigue after a flight which then extended to bouts of depression, insomnia, lung problems, and mysterious neurological reactions or physical impediments, visit the first two source links below to learn more about treatment and making a report.

Through the first two sites linked below, you may find references for aerotoxic syndrome medical help. If you travel by air fairly often, it would be wise to have your blood tested for TCP or organophosphates.

Airlines aren't doing anything to protect passengers from aerotoxic syndrome. Maybe this is because they don't want to be accountable or liable for past events.

Their solution is to purchase new non-bleed air Boeing Dream Liners when old planes need to be replaced. Seems like a tacit admission that they've been aware of the bleed air hazards.

If You Can't Board a Boeing Dream Liner

Even if you could grab an overhead oxygen mask, which is usually released to you only upon serious cabin pressure drops, this probably wouldn't be sufficient for the bleed air contaminants. Those oxygen masks use a combination of oxygen and bleed air.

Fortunately, the flight crews get 100% oxygen into their masks so they can continue to handle the aircraft after a bleed air contamination episode.

There are compact folding face masks lined with highly effective activated charcoal powder to adsorb TCP molecules. Adsorbing differs from absorbing because it involves electronic or ionic bonding of molecules, rather than sponge-like soaking.

What the airlines should be doing is providing these inexpensive activated charcoal masks and instructing passengers on how to use them when detection alarms sound. No such alarms exist currently, and they're not about to reveal their dangerous secret by giving out charcoal masks.

Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia's control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies' corruption. Paul's contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are well received by truth seekers. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.